November 22, 2009

Science Fiction Sunday 55

Regular readers might remember that I am a big fan of 50's science fiction films. Good or bad I like seeing them all, at least once. It's getting harder and harder to find one I haven't seen. Finding two in one week was a special treat. The Twonky is a 1953 film by Arch Obler, who's the director and writer. He's also the writer/director of the first post apocalypse movie, Five. Before writing and directing some movies Arch was a radio play writer and producer. In 1937 he wrote the Chicken Heart episode for Lights Out! which Bill Cosby paid tribute to in his 1966 album Wonderfulness. When I was a boy in the late 60's me and this other kid used to listen to those Bill Cosby albums over and over. We had that Chicken Heart story memorized and we'd tell it over and over to anyone who would listen. We were nerds even then. I wonder what happened to that kid. If you were that kid, let me know. That same week TCM ran The Twonky they also ran Riders To The Stars. Even though I had seen them both recently they made a nice double feature and something I could also sort LEGO too. I was transfering some stock to different containers. Just a bit of a clean up.

The Twonky is based on a Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore story that was published under the Lewis Padgett name in 1942. I remember having a Kuttner story collection back in the 70's that had that story in it. The movie ran recently on Turner Classic Movies. Happily I noticed and snagged a copy. Hans Conried is a professor who is being left home by his wife. She's left him a new tv to keep him company. He's not too interested until the tv starts acting rather oddly. It can light his cigarette with a bolt of lightning. A small bolt. Soon it starts telling him what to do and zapping his mind. All sorts of whacky stuff starts happening. I've always been a Hans Conried fan and here he's pretty entertaining. His hammy style fits the tone of the movie quite handily. The movie is pretty silly story wise but fun to watch. TV was pretty new at the time and people sure treated it differently. More special. I don't think we got a tv until around 1960. I should ask mom, she'd probably remember. The effects are pretty low budget but they get the job done. A good edition to the collection and a movie that I will certainly get around to watching again.

Riders To The Stars is a 1954 space travel movie directed by science fiction and horror movie star Richard Carlson. You'd know him if you watched those 50's SF and Horror films that I like. He's in a bunch of movies. Some science guys are brought together to man the first space ships. Their secret mission? Catch an asteroid and bring it home. It's pretty low budget and they're aren't any monsters. Just human emotions and the dangers of space travel. I like the scientist hero genre even when there's nearly no action. The Brits did some nice ones like the Quatermass series. RTTS has effects that you wouldn't say are too bad for what little money they spent. I didn't laugh out loud the second time I saw the space ship explode or the skeleton floating in space. The acting is fair to good and the screen play by Curt Siodmak is ok, though awash with science errors. Ivan Tors, of Doktari and Flipper fame, is the producer. The three ships blast off and one is blown up trying to catch an asteriod. Number two goes space crazy and heads off into the blackness. Will our hero get his rock and make it home to the waiting arms of Martha Hyer. I'll never tell though I am sure you can guess the outcome. Worth a glance, not one that I'd feel the need to watch too often, not with so many other great flicks asking for a moment or two of my time.